Accurate, Reliable, Timely

IS Australia FAQs

For all media enquiries please call our MotorMouth Hotline at
any time on +61 7 3858 0016.

Informed Sources recognises that in the retail fuel industry
there are times of intense interest in the operation of the market
and the role that we play. Many assertions made about us are false,
misleading or both so we have answered these commonly held beliefs
below with evidence to back our claims where appropriate.

Myth 1 - Informed Sources is owned by, or was set up by,
or operates on behalf of big oil companies.

False - Informed Sources is a privately owned business that was
established by the current owner in 1987 to provide market
information to fuel retailers. No oil companies or other parties of
any kind have an interest or shareholding in the business. Informed
Sources' relationship with its clients is a supplier relationship
just like any other business. We are completely independent.

Myth 2 - Informed Sources is a private club just for big
oil companies.

False - Informed Sources will provide information services to
any fuel retailer in Australia whether they are
big or small. Our services have typically suited retailers with a
larger network of service stations, but we have very happy clients
with as few as 10 or 15 service stations in their network.

False - Informed Sources provide our retail fuel clients with
regular and frequent industry reports of the latest prices
available from the market. This is identical to other services such
as those provided by AC Nielsen to the grocery industry, Synovate
Aztec to the convenience industry and GFK Group to the consumer
electronics industry.

We receive data from two main sources:

Information that we survey ourselves by observing price boards
that are viewable by the public

Information that we receive from retailers in the market after
the price has been set on their price board and is viewable by the
public at the site (in an identical fashion to the services listed
above in other industries)

to most of Australia's motoring organisations (RACQ, NRMA,
RACV, RAA SA and RACT)

to partners such as Sensis, Carsguide, Yapp Mobile and Garmin
(which they use to create information services on the internet,
mobile phones and navigation devices.

to the ACCC so they can monitor the activity of retailers in
the market. We have had the ACCC as a client for this sort of
information for over 15 years.

Myth 4 - Informed Sources' service is
unique

False - Our service is identical to many other information
services available in Australia and other countries right now for
the grocery, convenience and consumer electronics industries. Our
service updates our clients with the latest information regularly
and frequently to match their needs in the fast changing petrol
retail market. The age of the information that we publish is not
uniform. Some information that we publish is about 30 minutes old,
some information is up to 8 hours old and some is even days old.
Our clients use this information to make decisions about what
prices they should charge for their products - just like how any
business would use a price monitoring service.

Myth 5 - Informed Sources has pricing information about
every service station in Australia.

False - Informed Sources has pricing information from about 50
to 60% of service stations in the Australian market at any one
time.

Myth 6 - Informed Sources' service is almost
illegal.

False - Informed Sources' service is 100% legal. Our service
only publishes fuel prices that are already publicly displayed on a
price board or at the pump.

We never have and never will publish
information about prices that retailers intend to charge in the
future. We have failsafe systems that guarantee this can not
happen.

Myth 7 - The service that Informed Sources provides in
Australia would be illegal in other countries.

False - Informed Sources has written advice direct from
competition regulators in New Zealand and Germany that if we were
to set up our service in their jurisdictions like we provide in
Australia it would be 100% legal. The German regulator's
acknowledgement is particularly important because it was made after
consideration of both German and EU statutes.

Myth 8 - Informed Sources caused the petrol price
cycle

False - The petrol price cycle existed well before Informed
Sources opened for business in 1987. It was originally identified
occurring in Canada in 1925. You can verify this here:

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, `Petrol prices
and Australian consumers: Report of the ACCC inquiry into the price
of unleaded petrol', December 2007, Appendix O.

False - motorists in Australia are very much aware of the
cheapest days to buy fuel in the capital cities. When motorists
choose to buy petrol is a decision for them. Services such as
MotorMouth provide free information to consumers about finding the
best fuel prices near them every day of the week.

In addition there is a study into the potential social benefits
of price cycles. You can verify this here: